Iraq has commenced work on an oil pipeline linking Basra to Haditha with a planned capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day, the state news agency has reported, citing the oil ministry, as the OPEC producer seeks to expand export routes.
About $1.5 billion has been allocated for the project, although its pace will depend on securing further budget allocations, the ministry said on Friday.
The 700-kilometre (435-mile) pipeline will transport crude for export through multiple routes, including Syria's Baniyas, Türkiye’s Ceyhan and Jordan's Aqaba, while also supplying refineries along its path, a ministry spokesperson said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani chaired a meeting to follow up on the Basra-Haditha pipeline project, approved in 2024, and said it had been conceived as a proactive step anticipating current regional conditions and guarding against potential disruption to existing export routes.
Crude exports through the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline had resumed in March, after Baghdad and the KRG agreed on restarting flows.
Baghdad is also working to revamp a disused pipeline that would allow oil to be pumped directly to Türkiye’s Ceyhan port without passing through the KRG region.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war has curtailed oil exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq, sending prices higher.
